The processing of semiconductor wafers has become of great economic significance due to the large volume of integrated circuits, data disks, and similar articles being produced.
The size of features used in integrated circuits and data disks have decreased significantly, thus providing greater integration and greater capacity. This has been possible due to improved lithography techniques and improved processing.
The reduction in feature size has been limited by contamination. This is true because various contaminating particles, crystals, metals and organics lead to defects in the resulting products. The limitations on feature size caused by contaminants have prevented full utilization of the resolution capability of known lithography techniques. Thus there remains an acute need for improved methods and systems for processing semiconductor wafers, data disks and similar articles requiring very low levels of contamination during processing.